Contents

San Fernando was founded in 1786 and was named after Saint Ferdinand III of Castile. The city's original settlements, San Vicente de Balanac and San Guillermo de Dalangdang, were attacked by pirates and headhunters.

In 1759, Augustinian friar, Padre José Torres fused these 2 settlements to Pindangan (local word for a place to dry fish), where a church dedicated to San Guillermo the Hermit was. This church is now the Cathedral of St. William the Hermit. The massive 1860's earthquake destroyed the church which was later rebuilt.

It became the cabecera or provincial capital of La Union province in 1850.

In the Second World War, the last battle of San Fernando was fought during the Japanese occupation at Barangay Bacsil. The Bacsil Ridge Monument was built on the site in the city, the north-eastern portion of the town plaza. The victory enabled the establishment of the United States Army Base, Base M at Poro Point (a buildup area for the Japan invasion).[5] The town was liberated in 1945.[6]

The mayor and other elected officers hold office at the city hall of San Fernando. The Sangguniang Bayan is legislature, stationed in the Don Mariano Marcos Building, the Legislative Building in front of the city hall.

1.
Cities of the Philippines
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A city is one of the units of local government in the Philippines. As of December 12,2015, there are 145 cities, Cities are entitled to at least one representative in the Philippine House of Representatives if its population reaches 250,000. They are allowed to use a common seal, only an Act of Congress can create or amend a city charter, and with this city charter Congress confers on a city certain powers that regular municipalities or even other cities may not have. A citys local government is headed by an elected by popular vote. The vice mayor serves as the officer of the Sangguniang Panlungsod. Upon receiving their charters, cities also receive a full complement of executive departments to serve their constituents. Some departments are established on a basis, depending on the needs of the city. Source, Local Government Code of 1991, Cities, like municipalities, are composed of barangays, which can range from urban neighborhoods, to rural communities. Barangays are sometimes grouped into officially defined administrative districts, examples of such are the cities of Manila, Davao, Iloilo, and Samal. Some cities such as Caloocan, Manila and Pasay even have a level between the district and barangay levels, called a zone. However, geographic districts and zones are not political units, there are no elected city government officials in these city-specific administrative levels, rather they only serve to make city planning, statistics-gathering other administrative tasks easier and more convenient. Cities are classified according to annual income based on the previous four calendar years. There are currently 33 highly urbanized cities in the Philippines,16 of which are located in Metro Manila, Component Cities, Cities which do not meet the preceding requirements are deemed part of the province in which they are geographically located. If a component city is located along the boundaries of two or more provinces, it shall be considered part of the province of which it used to be a municipality, majority of the remaining cities are considered component cities. The five exceptions are listed below, independent Component Cities, Cities of this type have charters that explicitly prohibit their residents to vote for provincial officials. These cities are considered independent from the province in which they are geographically located, there are five such cities, Cotabato, Dagupan, Naga, Ormoc and Santiago. There are 38 independent cities in the Philippines, all of which are classified as highly urbanized or independent component cities. Some independent cities are still grouped with their provinces for the purposes of representation in the Congress of the Philippines

2.
Philippines
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The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelagos earliest inhabitants and they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic nations occurred, then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization, in 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion, during this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. It is a member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte, eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other such as Islas del Poniente. The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history, during the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the name Philippines began to appear, since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. The metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago is the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date and this distinction previously belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were also among the archipelagos earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated, there are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos

3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation

4.
Regions of the Philippines
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In the Philippines, regions, ISO 3166-2, PH) are administrative divisions that serve primarily to organize the provinces of the country for administrative convenience. Currently, the republic of the Philippines is divided into 18 regions. Most government offices are established by region instead of individual provincial offices, the regions themselves do not possess a separate local government, with the exception of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which has an elected regional assembly and governor. The Cordillera Administrative Region was originally intended to be autonomous, since that time, other regions have been created and some provinces have been transferred from one region to another. June 22,1973, Pangasinan was transferred from Region III to Region I, july 7,1975, Region XII created and minor reorganization of some Mindanao regions. July 25,1975, Regions IX and XII declared as Autonomous Regions in Western, august 21,1975, Region IX divided into Sub-Region IX-A and Sub-Region IX-B. Minor reorganization of some Mindanao regions, november 7,1975, Metropolitan Manila created. June 2,1978, Metropolitan Manila declared as the National Capital Region, july 15,1987, Cordillera Administrative Region created. August 1,1989, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao created, Region XII reverted to an administrative region. October 23,1989, First creation of Cordillera Autonomous Region, ratification rejected by residents in a plebiscite. October 12,1990, Executive Order 429 issued by President Corazon Aquino to reorganize the Mindanao regions, february 23,1995, Region XIII created and minor reorganization of some Mindanao regions. Sultan Kudarat transferred to Region XI,1997, Minor reorganization of some Mindanao regions. December 22,1997, Second creation of Cordillera Autonomous Region, ratification rejected by residents in a plebiscite. December 18,1998, Sultan Kudarat returned to Region XII, september 19,2001, Most Mindanao regions reorganized and some renamed. May 17,2002, Region IV-A and Region IV-B created from the former Region IV region, may 23,2005, Palawan transferred from Region IV-B to Region VI, Mimaropa renamed to Mimaro. August 19,2005, Transfer of Palawan to Region VI held in abeyance, may 29,2015, Negros Island Region created. Negros Occidental and Bacolod from Region VI and Negros Oriental from Region VII transferred to form new region, july 17,2016, Republic Act No.10879 established the Southwestern Tagalog Region from the former Region IV-B. As of May 2015, the Philippines comprises 18 administrative regions and these regions are geographically organized into the three island groups of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao

5.
Ilocos Region
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The Ilocos Region is an administrative region of the Philippines, designated as Region I, occupying the northwestern section of Luzon. It is bordered by the Cordillera Administrative Region to the east, the Cagayan Valley to the northeast and southeast, to the west lies the South China Sea. The region comprises four provinces, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union and its regional center is San Fernando, La Union. The 2000 Census reported that the languages spoken in the region are Ilocano at 66. 36% of the total population at that time, Pangasinan with 27. 05%. The region was first inhabited by the aboriginal Negritos, before they were pushed by successive waves of Austronesian immigrants that penetrated the narrow coast, tingguians in the interior, Ilocanos in the north, and Pangasinenses in the south settled the region. Before the administration of Ferdinand Marcos, Pangasinan was not a part of the region, the Spanish arrived in the 16th century and established Christian missions and governmental institutions to control the native population and convert them to Catholicism. Present-day Vigan in Ilocos Sur province became the seat of Nueva Segovia. Ilocanos in the parts were less easily swayed, however. However, it was the Pangasinenses in the south who were the last to stand against the Spaniards, in 1901, the region came under American colonial rule, and in 1941, under Japanese occupation. Several modern presidents of the Republic of the Philippines hailed from the Region, Elpidio Quirino, Ferdinand Marcos, before the creation of the Cordillera Administrative Region, Region 1 included the provinces of Abra, Mountain Province and Benguet. Lingayen Gulf is the most notable body of water in the region and it contains several islands, to the north of the region is Luzon Strait. The Agno River runs through Pangasinan from Benguet, flowing into a delta at the vicinities of Lingayen. The Ilocos Region comprises 4 provinces,1 independent component city,8 component cities,116 municipalities, although the economy in the southern portion of the region, esp. Pangasinan, is anchored on agro-industrial and service industry, the economy in the portion of the region is anchored in the agricultural sector. The economy in Pangasinan is driven by agro-industrial businesses, such as cultivation and processing, livestock raising, fish paste processing. Income in the Ilocos provinces or northern portion mostly come from cultivating rice, tobacco, corn, sugarcane, and fruits, raising such as pigs, chicken, goats. The distribution of the activity in the region may be seen from the collection of tax revenue of the national government. The bulk of the come from Pangasinan, which posted 61% of the total

6.
Provinces of the Philippines
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The provinces of the Philippines are the primary political and administrative divisions of the Philippines. There are 81 provinces at present, further subdivided into component cities and municipalities, the National Capital Region, as well as independent cities, are independent of any provincial government. Each province is governed by a legislature called the Sangguniang Panlalawigan. The provinces are grouped into 18 regions based on geographical, cultural, fifteen of these regions are designated with numbers corresponding to their geographic location in order from north to south. The Cordillera Administrative Region, National Capital Region, Negros Island Region, each province is a member of the League of Provinces of the Philippines, an organization which aims to address issues affecting provincial and metropolitan government administrations. A provincial government is autonomous of other provinces within the Republic, each province is governed by two main elected branches of the government, executive and legislative. Judicial affairs are separated from provincial governance and are administered by the Supreme Court of the Philippines, the provincial governor is chief executive and head of each province. The vice governor acts as the president for each Sangguniáng Panlalawigan, every SP is composed of regularly elected members from provincial districts, as well as ex officio members. The number of regularly elected SP members allotted to each province is determined by its income class, first- and second-class provinces are provided ten regular SP members, third- and fourth-class provinces have eight, while fifth- and sixth-class provinces have six. Exceptions are provinces with more than five congressional districts, such as Cavite with 14 regularly elected SP members, every SP has designated seats for ex officio members, given to the respective local presidents of the Association of Barangay Captains, Philippine Councilors League, and Sangguniáng Kabataan. The vice governor and regular members of an SP are elected by the voters within the province, ex officio members are elected by members of their respective organisations. National intrusion into the affairs of each provincial government is limited by the Philippine Constitution, the President of the Philippines however coordinates with provincial administrators through the Department of the Interior and Local Government. For purposes of representation, each province is guaranteed its own congressional district. One congressional representative represents each district in the House of Representatives, senatorial representation is elected at an at-large basis and not apportioned through territory-based districts. Those classified as highly urbanized or independent component cities are independent from the province. Local government units classified as component cities and municipalities are under the jurisdiction of the provincial government, the provincial government does not have direct relations with individual barangays. Supervision over a government is the mandate of the mayor. Provinces are classified according to annual income based on the previous 4 calendar years

7.
La Union
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La Union, is a province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in the island of Luzon. Its capital is the city of San Fernando, which serves as the regional center of the whole Ilocos Region. The province is bordered by Ilocos Sur to the north, Benguet to the east, Pangasinan to the south, pangasinenses were the majority in the new province because most towns had been in the province of Pangasinan. On October 29,1849, Governor General Claveria issued a promovido to fuse the Pangasinan-Ilocos-Cordillera areas into La Union. On March 2,1850, Governor General Antonio Maria Blanco signed the Superior Decreto of La Union, isabella II of Spain decreed the provinces creation on April 18,1854. In 1661, Andres Malong failed to recover La Union from the Spaniards after the Battle of Agoo. In 1896, the people of La Union began a revolt against the Spaniards, the Americans collaborated with the Filipinos to end the Spanish. Dr. Lucino Almeida became the Presidente Provincial of the American regime, followed by the election of La Union’s first Civil Governor in 1901, on January 4,1945, La Union was liberated by the Battle of San Fernando and Bacsil Ridge. La Union covers a area of 1,497.70 square kilometres occupying the central‑southern section of the Ilocos Region in Luzon. The province is bordered by Ilocos Sur to the north, Benguet to the east, Pangasinan to the south, La Union is 273 kilometres north of Metro Manila and 57 kilometres northwest of Baguio City. The land area of the province is 149,770 hectares, like most of the Ilocos Region, the province is squeezed in by the Cordillera mountain range to the east and the South China Sea to the west. La Union comprises 19 municipalities and 1 component city, all of which are organized into two legislative districts, La Union has a total of 576 barangays comprising its 19 municipalities and 1 city. The most populous barangay in the province is Sevilla in the City of San Fernando with a population of 10,612 in the 2010 census, if cities are excluded, Central East in the municipality of Bauang has the highest number of inhabitants, at 4,249. Caggao in Bangar has the lowest with only 170, the population of La Union in the 2015 census was 786,653 people, with a density of 530 inhabitants per square kilometre or 1,400 inhabitants per square mile. The province is predominantly Ilocano and Roman Catholic, communities of Pangasinans thrive mostly in the southwestern portion of the province while Cordillerans live in the Cordillera foothills. It is the first province in the Philippines to pass an ordinance protecting and revitalizing a native regional language, La Union is known for its softbroom industry. The economy is diversified with service, manufacturing, and agricultural industries spread throughout the province, La Union has 333 public elementary schools,56 private elementary schools,79 public high schools,51 private secondary schools,20 Colleges and 5 State Universities. Just as the government, La Union provincial government is divided into three branches, executive, legislative and judiciary

8.
House of Representatives of the Philippines
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The House of Representatives of the Philippines, is the lower house of the Congress of the Philippines. It is often informally called Congress, Members of the House are officially styled as Representative and sometimes informally called Congressmen/Congresswomen and are elected to a three-year term. They can be re-elected, but cannot serve more than three consecutive terms, around eighty percent of congressmen are district representatives, representing a particular geographical area. There are 234 legislative districts in the country, each composed of about 250,000 people, there are also party-list representatives elected through the party-list system who constitute not more than twenty percent of the total number of representatives. The House of Representatives is headed by the Speaker, currently Pantaleon Alvarez of Davao del Norte, the official headquarters of the House of Representatives is at the Batasang Pambansa located in the Batasan Hills in Quezon City in Metro Manila. The building is simply called Batasan and the word has also become a metonym to refer to the House of Representatives. At the beginning of American colonial rule, from March 16,1900, william Howard Taft was chosen to be the first American civilian Governor-General and the first leader of this Philippine Commission, which subsequently became known as the Taft Commission. This bicameral legislature was inaugurated in October 1907, under the leadership of Speaker Sergio Osmeña and Floor Leader Manuel L. Quezon, the Rules of the 59th United States Congress was substantially adopted as the Rules of the Philippine Legislature. It is this body, founded as the Philippine Assembly, that would continue in one form or another, in 1916, the Jones Act, officially the Philippine Autonomy Act, changed the legislative system. The Philippine Commission was abolished and a new fully elected, bicameral Philippine Legislature consisting of a House of Representatives, the legislative system was changed again in 1935. The 1935 Constitution established a unicameral National Assembly, but in 1940, through an amendment to the 1935 Constitution, a bicameral Congress of the Philippines consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate was adopted. The Liberal bloc of the Nacionalistas permanently split from their ranks and these two will contest all of the elections in what appeared to be a two-party system. This set up continued until President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, the 1987 Constitution restored the presidential system of government together with a bicameral Congress of the Philippines. Corazon Aquino who nominally had no party, supported the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, with the victory of Fidel V. This also meant the restoration of Lakas-NUCD as the top party in the chamber, the same would happen when Benigno Aquino won in 2010, which returned the Liberals into power. The presiding officer is the Speaker, the members of the House of Representatives who are also its officers are also ex officio members of all of the committees and has a vote. The Speaker is the head of the House of Representatives, the speaker is elected by majority of all the members of the house, including vacant seats. The speaker is elected at the convening of each Congress

9.
Barangay
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A barangay, formerly referred to as barrio, is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district or ward. In colloquial usage, the term refers to an inner city neighbourhood. The word barangay originated from balangay, a kind of boat used by a group of Austronesian peoples when they migrated to the Philippines, as of June 2015, there were 42,029 barangays throughout the Philippines. When the first Spaniards arrived in the Philippines in the 16th century, the name barangay originated from balangay, a Malay word meaning sailboat. The first barangays started as small communities of around 50 to 100 families. By the time of contact with Spaniards, many barangays have developed into large communities, some of these barangays had large populations. In Panay, some barangays had 20,000 inhabitants, in Leyte,15,000 inhabitants, in Cebu,3,500 residents, in Vitis,7,000 inhabitants, there were smaller barangays with less number of people. But these were generally inland communities, or if they were coastal and these smaller barangays had around thirty to one hundred houses only, and the population varies from one hundred to five hundred persons. According to Legazpi, he found communities with twenty to thirty people only, traditionally, the original “barangays” were coastal settlements of the migration of these Malayo-Polynesian people from other places in Southeast Asia. Most of the ancient barangays were coastal or riverine in nature and this is because most of the people were relying on fishing for supply of protein and for their livelihood. They also travelled mostly by water up and down rivers, trails always followed river systems, which were also a major source of water for bathing, washing, and drinking. The coastal barangays were more accessible to trade with foreigners and these were ideal places for economic activity to develop. Business with traders from other countries also meant contact with cultures and civilizations, such as those of Japan, Han Chinese, Indian people. These coastal communities acquired more cosmopolitan cultures, with developed social structures, during the Spanish rule, through a resettlement policy called the Reducción, smaller scattered barangays were consolidated to form compact towns. Each barangay was headed by the cabeza de barangay, who formed part of the Principalía - the elite ruling class of the municipalities of the Spanish Philippines and this position was inherited from the first datus, and came to be known as such during the Spanish regime. The Spanish Monarch ruled each barangay through the Cabeza, who collected taxes from the residents for the Spanish Crown. When the Americans arrived, slight changes in the structure of government was effected. Later, Rural Councils with four councilors were created to assist, now renamed Barrio Lieutenant, it was later renamed Barrio Council, the Spanish term barrio was used for much of the 20th century until 1974, when President Ferdinand Marcos ordered their renaming to barangays

10.
Sangguniang Panlungsod
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The Sangguniang Panlungsod are the legislatures of city governments in the Philippines. As defined by the Local Government Code of 1991, the legislatures have legislative and quasi-judicial powers, the members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, often referred to as councilors are either elected or ex-officio and includes a citys vice mayor who serves as the presiding officer. The term was coined from the Tagalog words sanggunian and lungsod which means city council, in the absence of the vice mayor, a temporary presiding officer is assigned by the members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod from among themselves. The number of elected councilors a citys Sangguniang Panlungsod is composed of is prescribed in its charter. In absence of such a provision, it is composed of ten elected councilors, on the other hand, if the city also corresponds to a legislative district. Some cities also elect their councilors by districts which may also be provided in its charter, in general, cities which are composed of at least two legislative districts, equally divide its elected council seats among its districts. Of all the cities, Manila and Quezon City have the most number of elected councilors with 36 each, COMELEC Resolution 7801 - Annex C

11.
Philippine general election, 2016
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At the top of the ballot is the election for successors to Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and Vice President Jejomar Binay. The ARMM elections pushed through, as scheduled, barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections were scheduled for October 2016, but were postponed to 2017. Bautista replaced Sixto Brillantes, while Guanzon and Abbas replaced Lucenito Tagle and Elias Yusoph, all appointees will serve until February 2022. A few days after the announcement, it was revealed that Abas is a nephew of Mohagher Iqbal, bautista said the Abas confirmed to him that the latter is Iqbals nephew. Iqbal neither confirmed nor denied their relationship, calling it is a non-issue, the commission started voter registration for the elections on May 6,2014, to October 31,2015. Under the law, the 9.6 million registered voters who do not have attached their registration will not be allowed to vote. Voter registration was suspended from October 12 to 16 to give way to the filing of candidacies, from October 17 to 31, the commission would extend its hours up to 9,00 p. m. to accommodate last minute registrants. Voter registration was suspended in Puerto Princesa from April 20 to May 17,2015, the Voters Registration Act prohibits voter registration during recall elections. In June 2015, the commission denied reports that some voters biometrics were lost saying that they were degraded. A month later, the commission opened booths in Metro Manila, by that time, there were still 4.3 million voters with incomplete biometrics. The commission, seeing the turnout for registration at the malls. The commissions en banc had already approved in principle the mall voting process, near the end of the month, the commission said that the number of voters without biometrics has decreased to 3.8 million. By mid-August, the announced that they had purged 1.5 million. This was despite a petition to the Supreme Court by the Kabataan party-list to extend registration until January 8,2016, acting on the said petition, the Supreme Court issued a restraining order on the No Bio, No Boto mandatory voters biometrics campaign on December 1. It was later lifted after 16 days, the Philippines began using technology to streamline vote counting in 2010 when it automated its general elections. During the 2013 Mid Term elections it used the same technology, the court said that the commission failed to justify its resort to direct contracting. Two months later, the Commission conducted an election where a hybrid system of manual counting. Senator Francis Escudero disapproved of the use of the hybrid system, a few days later, the Commission informed the House of Representatives Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms that they had decided not to use the hybrid system

12.
Philippine Standard Time
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Philippine Standard Time, also known as Philippine Time and informally Juan Time, is the official name for the time in the Philippines. The country only uses one time zone, and for a short period, geographically, the Philippines lies within 116°40′ and 126°34′ east of the Prime Meridian, and is physically located within the UTC+08,00 time zone. Philippine Standard Time is maintained by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, the Philippines shares the same time zone with Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, most parts of China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, central Indonesia, and Western Australia. Philippine Standard Time was instituted through Batas Pambansa Blg,8, approved on 2 December 1978 and implemented on 1 January 1983. The Philippines is one of the few countries to officially and almost exclusively use the 12-hour clock in non-military situations. From 1521 to 1844, the Philippines had the date as Mexico. Monday,30 December 1844 was immediately followed by Wednesday,1 January 1845 and this meant that International Date Line moved from going west of the Philippines to go on the east side of the country. At the time, local time was used to set clocks, meaning that every place used its own local time based on its longitude. Television and radio stations in the Philippines display the time, in September 2011, the Department of Science and Technology proposed to synchronise time nationwide in an effort to discourage tardiness. On May 15,2013, President Benigno Aquino III signed Republic Act No,10535, better known as the The Philippine Standard Time Act of 2013 as a last step to finally implement the Juan Time. Effective June 1,2013, all government offices and media networks will be required to use Philippine Standard Time as a basis to set their timepieces, in addition, the first week of January will be regularly observed as the National Time Consciousness Week. The IANA time zone database contains one zone for the Philippines in the file zone. tab, hapon starts at 1,00 PM and ends 5,59 PM. Gabí starts at 6,00 PM and ends 12,00 AM which is Hatinggabi, madalíng Araw starts at 12,01 AM and ends 4,59 AM. Except in very formal situations, Filipinos rarely use the numbers in telling time. - Alas otso kwarenta y uno ng gabí or Apatnapút-isá makalipas ng ikawaló ng gabí5,30 A. M, - Alas singko y medya ng umaga or Tatlumpûng minuto makalipas ng ikalimá ng umaga or ikalimá at kalaháti ng umaga 3,00 P. M. - Alas tres ng hapon o Ikatló ng hapon 12,00 P. M, - Alas dose ng tanghalì o Ikalabíndalawá ng tanghalì12,00 A. M. - Alas dose ng hatinggabi o Ikalabíndalawá ng hatinggabí2,00 A. M

13.
List of ZIP codes in the Philippines
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In the Philippines, the Philippine ZIP code is used by the Philippine Postal Corporation to simplify the distribution of mail. While in function it is similar to the ZIP code used in the United States, its form, the use of ZIP codes in the Philippines is not mandatory, however it is highly recommended by Philpost that they be used. This article provides a list of Philippine ZIP codes, cities that have become independent of the province are listed under the province they used to be part of

14.
Telephone numbers in the Philippines
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Telephone numbers in the Philippines follow an open telephone numbering plan and an open dial plan. Both plans are regulated by the National Telecommunications Commission, an agency under the Department of Information. The Philippines is assigned an international dialling code of 63 by ITU-T, telephone numbers are fixed at seven digits, with area codes fixed at one, two, or three digits. Mobile phone numbers are always 10 digits, when making long-distance calls in the Philippines, the prefix 0 for domestic calls and 00 for international calls are used. Some smaller carriers concentrated within a geographic area may issue four- or five-digit area codes. Occasionally, an area may change area codes. For example, the City of Bacoor in Cavite has been included in the coverage area of area code 2 per the National Telecommunications Commissions Memorandum Order No. 08-09-2011, although almost all fixed-lines in the city use the old 46 area code due to the poor compliance of PLDT. Sometimes area codes are shared by a number of government entities to maximise their use. In extreme cases, area codes are shared across an island like in Leyte and Samar, or even entire regions, in order to identify the calls point of origin, the three-digit telephone exchange prefix is checked. Since the Philippines employs an open plan, telephone numbers dialled within a given area code do not require the area code. When dialling other area codes, the long distance access prefix 0 is added, but when dialling from overseas. However, the code indicates the service provider and not necessarily a geographic region. Unlike fixed-line telephones, the telephone dialling format is always observed when using a mobile phone. Therefore, mobile phone numbers always have the format +63 xxx-xxxx for international callers and 0 xxx-xxxx for domestic callers. Some of the first area codes to be assigned for mobile phones were 912 for Mobiline/Piltel,915 for Islacom,917 for Globe Telecom,918 for Smart Communications, and 973 for Express Telecom. As service began growing rapidly since the 1990s, new codes have been added to meet demand as existing codes have since been exhausted, newer codes often come immediately after the last code exhausted, but this might not be the case if the next code is already in use. 955/956 are the latest codes and are used for Globe & TM, areas codes are grouped by provider with no single contiguous block of codes for a single provider

15.
Tropical monsoon climate
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Tropical monsoon climates have monthly mean temperatures above 18 °C in every month of the year and feature wet and dry seasons, as Tropical savanna climates do. Tropical monsoon climates however features its driest month seeing on average less than 60 mm and this latter fact is in direct contrast to a tropical savanna climate, whose driest month sees less than 60 mm of precipitation and also less than 100 – of precipitation. In essence, a monsoon climate tends to either see more rainfall than a tropical savanna climate or have less pronounced dry seasons. Additionally, a monsoon climate tends to see less variance in temperatures during the course of the year than a tropical savanna climate. This climate has a driest month which nearly always occurs at or soon after the winter solstice for that side of the equator, there are generally two versions of a tropical monsoon climate, Less pronounced dry seasons. Regions with this variation of the monsoon climate typically see copious amounts of rain during the wet season. However, unlike most tropical climates, a sizeable amount of precipitation also falls during the dry season. In essence, this version of the monsoon climate generally has less pronounced dry seasons than tropical savanna climates. Extraordinarily rainy wet seasons and pronounced dry seasons and this variation features pronounced dry seasons similar in length and character to dry seasons observed in tropical savanna climates. However, this is followed by a period of extraordinary rainfall. In some instances, up to 1,000 mm of precipitation is observed per month for two or more consecutive months, Tropical savanna climates generally do not see this level of sustained rainfall. Tropical monsoon climates are most commonly found in South and Central America, however, there are sections of South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and North America that also feature this climate. The major controlling factor over a tropical climate is its relationship to the monsoon circulation. The monsoon is a change in wind direction. In Asia, during the summer there is a flow of air. In the “winter” an offshore air flow is prevalent, the change in direction is due to the difference in the way water and land heat. October is the hottest month no matter whether is it in the southern or northern hemisphere and this is because October is the shoulder season of the year as if it is the end of the wet season and no winter winds blowing. Changing pressure patterns that affect the seasonality of precipitation occur in Africa though it generally differs from the way it operates in Asia

16.
Municipalities of the Philippines
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A municipality is a local government unit in the Philippines. Municipalities are also usually called towns and they are distinct from cities, which are a different category of local government unit. Provinces of the Philippines are divided into cities and municipalities, which in turn, are divided into barangays, as of June 2015, there are 1,490 municipalities across the country. A municipal district is a local government unit, previously certain areas were created first as municipal districts before they were converted into municipalities. Municipalities have some autonomy from the National Government of the Republic of the Philippines under the Local Government Code of 1991 and they have been granted corporate personality enabling them to enact local policies and laws, enforce them, and govern their jurisdictions. They can enter into contracts and other transactions through their elected and appointed officials and they are tasked with enforcing all laws, whether local or national. The National Government assists and supervises the local government to make sure that they do not violate national law, the Judicial Branch of the Republic of the Philippines also caters to the needs of local government units. Local governments, such as a municipalities, do not have their own judicial branch and these responsibilities shall be under approval of the Sangguniang Bayan. The vice mayor shall sign all warrants drawn on the municipal treasury, in circumstances where the mayor permanently or temporarily vacates the position, he shall assume executive duties and functions. While vice mayor presides over the legislature, he cannot vote unless the necessity of tie-breaking arises, laws or ordinances proposed by the Sangguniang Bayan, however, may be approved or vetoed by the mayor. If approved, they become local ordinances, if the mayor neither vetoes nor approves the proposal of the Sangguniang Bayan for ten days from the time of receipt, the proposal becomes law as if it had been signed. If vetoed, the draft is sent back to the Sangguniang Bayan, the latter may override the mayor by a vote of at least two-thirds of all its members, in which case, the proposal becomes law. A municipality, upon reaching a certain requirements – minimum population size, first, a bill must be passed in Congress, then signed into law by the President and then the residents would vote in the succeeding plebiscite to accept or reject cityhood. One benefit in being a city is that the city government gets more budget, but taxes are much higher than in municipalities

17.
Ilokano language
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Ilocano is the third most-spoken native language of the Philippines. An Austronesian language, it is related to languages as Malay, Tetum, Chamorro, Fijian, Maori, Hawaiian, Samoan, Tahitian, Paiwan. It is closely related to some of the other Austronesian languages of Northern Luzon, and has slight mutual intelligibility with the Balangao language, Ilocano, like all Philippine languages, is an Austronesian language, a very expansive language family believed to originate in Taiwan. Ilocano comprises its own branch within the Philippine Cordilleran language subfamily and it is spoken as first language by seven million people. The language is spoken in northwest Luzon, the Babuyan Islands, Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan Valley, parts of Central Luzon, the language is also spoken in the United States, with Hawaii and California having the largest amount of speakers. It is the third most spoken language in Hawaii after Tagalog and Japanese. They used a system that is termed as an abugida, or an alphasyllabary and it was similar to the Tagalog and Pangasinan scripts, where each character represented a consonant-vowel, or CV, sequence. Before the addition of the virama, writers had no way to designate coda consonants, in the Spanish system words of Spanish origin kept their spellings. Native words, on the hand, conformed to the Spanish rules of spelling. Nowadays, only the generation of Ilocanos use the Spanish system. In the system based on that of Tagalog there is more of a phoneme-to-letter correspondence, the letters ng constitute a digraph and counts as a single letter, following n in alphabetization. As a result, numo humility appears before ngalngal to chew in newer dictionaries, Words of foreign origin, most notably those from Spanish, need to be changed in spelling to better reflect Ilocano phonology. Words of English origin may or may not conform to this orthography, a prime example using this system is the weekly magazine Bannawag. The following are two versions of the Lords Prayer, the one on the left is written using the Spanish-based orthography, while the one on the right uses the Tagalog-based system. It is recognized by the Commission on the Filipino Language as one of the languages of the Philippines. Constitutionally, Ilocano is an official language in the regions where it is spoken. In recent years, a movement in both the Lower and the Upper House of the Congress pressed for the usage of the tongue as a medium of instruction until the sixth grade. Ilocano animistic past offers a background in folklore, mythology

18.
City of the Philippines
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A city is one of the units of local government in the Philippines. As of December 12,2015, there are 145 cities, Cities are entitled to at least one representative in the Philippine House of Representatives if its population reaches 250,000. They are allowed to use a common seal, only an Act of Congress can create or amend a city charter, and with this city charter Congress confers on a city certain powers that regular municipalities or even other cities may not have. A citys local government is headed by an elected by popular vote. The vice mayor serves as the officer of the Sangguniang Panlungsod. Upon receiving their charters, cities also receive a full complement of executive departments to serve their constituents. Some departments are established on a basis, depending on the needs of the city. Source, Local Government Code of 1991, Cities, like municipalities, are composed of barangays, which can range from urban neighborhoods, to rural communities. Barangays are sometimes grouped into officially defined administrative districts, examples of such are the cities of Manila, Davao, Iloilo, and Samal. Some cities such as Caloocan, Manila and Pasay even have a level between the district and barangay levels, called a zone. However, geographic districts and zones are not political units, there are no elected city government officials in these city-specific administrative levels, rather they only serve to make city planning, statistics-gathering other administrative tasks easier and more convenient. Cities are classified according to annual income based on the previous four calendar years. There are currently 33 highly urbanized cities in the Philippines,16 of which are located in Metro Manila, Component Cities, Cities which do not meet the preceding requirements are deemed part of the province in which they are geographically located. If a component city is located along the boundaries of two or more provinces, it shall be considered part of the province of which it used to be a municipality, majority of the remaining cities are considered component cities. The five exceptions are listed below, independent Component Cities, Cities of this type have charters that explicitly prohibit their residents to vote for provincial officials. These cities are considered independent from the province in which they are geographically located, there are five such cities, Cotabato, Dagupan, Naga, Ormoc and Santiago. There are 38 independent cities in the Philippines, all of which are classified as highly urbanized or independent component cities. Some independent cities are still grouped with their provinces for the purposes of representation in the Congress of the Philippines

19.
Philippine Province
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The provinces of the Philippines are the primary political and administrative divisions of the Philippines. There are 81 provinces at present, further subdivided into component cities and municipalities, the National Capital Region, as well as independent cities, are independent of any provincial government. Each province is governed by a legislature called the Sangguniang Panlalawigan. The provinces are grouped into 18 regions based on geographical, cultural, fifteen of these regions are designated with numbers corresponding to their geographic location in order from north to south. The Cordillera Administrative Region, National Capital Region, Negros Island Region, each province is a member of the League of Provinces of the Philippines, an organization which aims to address issues affecting provincial and metropolitan government administrations. A provincial government is autonomous of other provinces within the Republic, each province is governed by two main elected branches of the government, executive and legislative. Judicial affairs are separated from provincial governance and are administered by the Supreme Court of the Philippines, the provincial governor is chief executive and head of each province. The vice governor acts as the president for each Sangguniáng Panlalawigan, every SP is composed of regularly elected members from provincial districts, as well as ex officio members. The number of regularly elected SP members allotted to each province is determined by its income class, first- and second-class provinces are provided ten regular SP members, third- and fourth-class provinces have eight, while fifth- and sixth-class provinces have six. Exceptions are provinces with more than five congressional districts, such as Cavite with 14 regularly elected SP members, every SP has designated seats for ex officio members, given to the respective local presidents of the Association of Barangay Captains, Philippine Councilors League, and Sangguniáng Kabataan. The vice governor and regular members of an SP are elected by the voters within the province, ex officio members are elected by members of their respective organisations. National intrusion into the affairs of each provincial government is limited by the Philippine Constitution, the President of the Philippines however coordinates with provincial administrators through the Department of the Interior and Local Government. For purposes of representation, each province is guaranteed its own congressional district. One congressional representative represents each district in the House of Representatives, senatorial representation is elected at an at-large basis and not apportioned through territory-based districts. Those classified as highly urbanized or independent component cities are independent from the province. Local government units classified as component cities and municipalities are under the jurisdiction of the provincial government, the provincial government does not have direct relations with individual barangays. Supervision over a government is the mandate of the mayor. Provinces are classified according to annual income based on the previous 4 calendar years

20.
San Juan, La Union
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San Juan is a second class municipality in the province of La Union, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 35,098 people, San Juan is located in the west of the province of La Union, along the Manila North Road, between latitudes 16°39N and 16°43N and longitudes 120°9E and 120°15E. San Juan is bounded on the north by the municipality of Bacnotan along the Baroro River, on the south it is bounded by the City of San Fernando and on the west by the South China Sea. By way of the Manila North Road, San Juan is 8 kilometres north of San Fernando City and it is also 277 kilometres north of Manila which can be traveled by road in about 6 hours. The total land area of San Juan is 5,712 hectares, some 505.08 hectares or 8. 46% is claimed by the municipality of Bacnotan and San Fernando City. San Juan is politically subdivided into 41 barangays, the climate in San Juan is dry from November to April and wet from May to October. The south-west monsoon brings abundant rainfall during the wet season, whereas the north-east monsoon passing over the Cordillera Mountains to the east brings the drier conditions, the average annual temperature is 27.2 °C. In 1582, San Juan was proclaimed a mission station under the authority of the Augustinian Order, by 1586 the town had become the center of the parish, and was renamed San Juan by the Augustinian Fathers after the Catholic Patron Saint of San Juan Bautista. The town boasted an Augustinian convent and a population of 6,000 and its first priest was Friar Agustin Niño. The center of the parish was transferred to Bauang, with San Juan sometimes being an out-station of Bauang. In 1707 the Church of St. John the Baptist was constructed at San Juan, in 1772, the mission station was placed under the authority of the Dominican Order. In 1807, San Juan was established as a parish in its own right, on March 2,1850, San Juan became part of the province of La Union, when the province was created by Governor-General Antonio Maria Blanco. In 1898 during the days of the Philippine Revolution, the whole of San Juan was razed to the ground by a great fire. With the demise of the church, convent and rectory, the registers were destroyed. Municipal birth registers were begun in 1922, after the Spanish–American War, Father Mariano Gaerlan was appointed priest. He was a native of San Juan, the first Filipino priest for the town and he also began the reconstruction of the church in 1902, which was completed under his successor, Father Eustaquio Ocampo. Another local resident, also named Mariano Gaerlan, wrote Biag ti Maysa a Lakay, the book was in the local Ilokano language and published in 1909. He was originally from Candon, Ilocos Sur where he maintained a residence

21.
Bauang, La Union
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Bauang is a first class urbanized municipality in the province of La Union, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 70,735 people and it is bordered by San Fernando City to the north, Caba to the south, Naguilian to the east, and the West Philippine Sea to the west. The MacArthur Highway runs through the town, which junctions with Naguilian Road, in 1590, Bauang started as a settlement. Spanish Friar Agustin Mino was appointed its first minister, in 1765, it became a town and formed part of Pangasinan. Don Francisco delos Reyes sat as its first gobernadorcillo, with the creation of La Union in 1850, Bauang became one of its twelve towns. Like other towns in the province, Bauang also had its share in the invasions of Moro pirates made series of invasions in Bauang, hence. In 1890, Bauang revolucionarios led by Remigio Patacsil and Mauro Ortiz ousted the Spanish colonizers, in 1913, however, Bauang barrios were given to San Fernando, Pagudpud, Pagdalagan, Sevilla, Bungro, Tanquigan and Sibuan-Otong. In the Japanese war, heroes of Baunag fought in its beaches, in Lingayen Gulf, Bataan, the Japanese executed Manuel Arguilla, poet and journalist, Major Alberto O. Fenit and Bauang Mayor Ambrosio Rimando. A town plaza monument today honors these Bauang heroes, Bauang is known as the Beach Capital of the Philippines. Bauang has a treasure, Research Reef, Bauang regularly hosts the South China Sea Regatta Bauang originated from baoang. The word buang also means river split into two flowing into the sea, Bauang has a treasure, Research Reef. Bauang regularly hosts the South China Sea Regatta Just as the national government, the judicial branch is administered solely by the Supreme Court of the Philippines. The LGUs have control of the executive and legislative branch, the executive branch is composed of the mayor and the barangay captain for the barangays. The legislative branch is composed of the Sangguniang Bayan, Sangguniang Barangay, the seat of Government is vested upon the Mayor Eulogio Clarence Martin P. De Guzman who holds office at the Bauang Town hall. The Sanguniang Bayan is the center of legislation, dumo Wilmar Johnny A. Lopez David Ballesil ABC President The natives, who are predominantly Roman Catholic, speak Iloko, Filipino, and English. The primary industries are farming, fishing, power plant and quarrying, Bauangs main products are rice, corn, guapples and native grapes, mango, lowland vegetables, livestock, tobacco, marine products, saltwater fish politically. Bauang is known for its beaches, including Taberna, Baccuit Sur and Norte, Paringao. Bauangs beaches are accessible from several resorts, Bali Hai Beach Resort, Long Beach Resort, Coconut Grove Beach Resort and San Luis del Mar, Peter & Paul Parish Church celebrates its fiesta every June 29

22.
Bagulin, La Union
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Bagulin is a fifth class municipality in the province of La Union, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 12,590 people, tradition reveals that Bagulin derived its name from a Kankanaey tribal leader. Sometime in the middle of the 18th century, the municipality is part of the township of Allabok which covers the slopes of the mountain ranges overlooking the China Sea. During those times, war tribes was prevalent, Allabok involved itself in a tribal war headed by Bagulin who led the community to victory. From then on until his death, the highly regarded him as their noble leader. After his death, consensus with the residents together with the concurrence of Spanish authorities resulted in naming the community after Bagulin, at present, Kankanaey still dominate the town’s population. Another etymological version states that Bagulin was derived from the term bago which means lowland natives and this version is further supported by the fact that Kankanaeys comprise some 85% of the municipal population. Bagulin is situated at the eastern portion of La Union. It is generally mountainous and forested and its main entrance to lowland municipalities is through the Naguilian-Bagulin Road. It can be reached by vehicles and any means of transportation via the town of Naguilian. Bagulin is politically subdivided into 10 barangays, the community was moved to Picdel, a narrow valley strip along Naguilian-Bagulin river. By 1903, the American regime established a government and institutional facilities. Education was introduced and a community hall roofed with cogon was erected. As of 1903, the community was under the jurisdiction of the Mountain Province, sub-province of Benguet with capital at La Trinidad. By 1918, under the agreement of Governor Guzman of Mt. Province and Governor Pio Ancheta of La Union, by 1928, the community centers was moved to a nearby settlement called Suyo where the present town center is situated. The former community center was named “Nangalisan” which means a place in the Ilocano dialect. Settlers who improved Suyo were Ilocanos who came from Naguilian, at that time, a bamboo chalet was constructed to serve as an administrative hall. The administration then was composed of the Mayor, a Secretary-Treasurer, municipal income is very small that the administration had to prod reluctant taxpayers to pay their dues

23.
Naguilian, La Union
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Naguilian is a municipality in the province of La Union, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 49,311 people, Naguilian is 40 kilometres from Baguio City via the Naguilian Road and 17 kilometres from the provincial capital, San Fernando. Naguilian is characterized by hills and mountains that are gently rolling, the alienable lands are rolling plains in narrow strips, framed by the mountains slopes and the banks of rivers, crisscrossed by streams and springs from the side of the mountains. Its soil varies from loam to sandy loam and golds. There are two rivers in Naguilian. The Naguilian River is located in the portion of the town. It has a length of approximately 67 kilometres and has an area of 658 square kilometres. As classified by the Environmental Management Bureau, the reaches of the river falls under Class A which means that it is suitable as water supply source for drinking. The lower reaches has lower quality, categorized under Class C. The other major stream springs from the Municipality of Burgos and drains the valleys of Barangays Aguioas, Sili, Al-alinao Norte, Nagsidorisan, Angin, Suguidan Norte and Natividad. These two rivers meet at the poblacion where it forms a delta, then meander through the center of the municipality and empty at the mouth of the river in Bauang. The municipality’s climate falls under the first type of climate in the Philippines, the wet season usually comes in May and ends in the early part of October. The rest of the year is dry season, built-up areas of the town are generally spread along the barangay roads. Of the total area,50 hectares, equivalent to 0. 50% of the total land area, are classified as built-up areas. Urban built-up area, totaling 18.90 hectares, constitute 11. 22% of the urban land area. Rural built-up areas total 31.10 hectares, or 0. 31% of the rural area. 52, a portion of Barangay Casilagan, with an area of 897.26 hectares, was proclaimed as an area by the Bureau of Forestry. This is equivalent to. 10% of the land area of the town

24.
South China Sea
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The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Karimata and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around 3,500,000 square kilometres. The areas importance largely results from one-third of the worlds shipping sailing through its waters, the sea and its mostly uninhabited islands are subject to competing claims of sovereignty by several countries. These claims are reflected in the variety of names used for the islands. South China Sea is the dominant term used in English for the sea, and this name is a result of early European interest in the sea as a route from Europe and South Asia to the trading opportunities of China. In the sixteenth century Portuguese sailors called it the China Sea, the International Hydrographic Organization refers to the sea as South China Sea. The Classic of Poetry, Zuo Zhuan, and Guoyu classics of the Spring and Autumn period also referred to the sea, Nan Hai, the South Sea, was one of the Four Seas of Chinese literature. There are three other seas, one for each of the four cardinal directions, during the Eastern Han dynasty, Chinas rulers called the Sea Zhang Hai. Fei Hai became popular during the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, usage of the current Chinese name, Nan Hai, became gradually widespread during the Qing Dynasty. In Southeast Asia it was called the Champa Sea or Sea of Cham. The majority of the sea came under Japanese naval control during World War II following the acquisition of many surrounding South East Asian territories in 1941. Japan calls the sea Minami Shina Kai South China Sea and this was written 南支那海 until 2004, when the Japanese Foreign Ministry and other departments switched the spelling 南シナ海, which has become the standard usage in Japan. In China, it is called the South Sea, 南海 Nánhǎi, in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, it was long called the South China Sea, with the part within Philippine territorial waters often called the Luzon Sea, Dagat Luzon, by the Philippines. However, following an escalation of the Spratly Islands dispute in 2011, a PAGASA spokesperson said that the sea to the east of the Philippines will continue to be called the Philippine Sea. In September 2012, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III signed Administrative Order No, states and territories with borders on the sea include, the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam. Major rivers that flow into the South China Sea include the Pearl, Min, Jiulong, Red, Mekong, Rajang, Pahang, Pampanga, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the South China Sea as follows, On the South. From Fuki Kaku the North point of Formosa to Kiushan Tao on to the South point of Haitan Tao, the Mainland, the Southern limit of the Gulf of Thailand and the East coast of the Malay Peninsula. The sea lies above a drowned continental shelf, during recent ice ages global sea level was hundreds of metres lower, the South China Sea opened around 45 million years ago when the Dangerous Ground rifted away from southern China. Extension culminated in seafloor spreading around 30 million years ago, a process that propagated to the SW resulting in the V-shaped basin we see today, extension ceased around 17 million years ago

25.
Ilocano language
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Ilocano is the third most-spoken native language of the Philippines. An Austronesian language, it is related to languages as Malay, Tetum, Chamorro, Fijian, Maori, Hawaiian, Samoan, Tahitian, Paiwan. It is closely related to some of the other Austronesian languages of Northern Luzon, and has slight mutual intelligibility with the Balangao language, Ilocano, like all Philippine languages, is an Austronesian language, a very expansive language family believed to originate in Taiwan. Ilocano comprises its own branch within the Philippine Cordilleran language subfamily and it is spoken as first language by seven million people. The language is spoken in northwest Luzon, the Babuyan Islands, Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan Valley, parts of Central Luzon, the language is also spoken in the United States, with Hawaii and California having the largest amount of speakers. It is the third most spoken language in Hawaii after Tagalog and Japanese. They used a system that is termed as an abugida, or an alphasyllabary and it was similar to the Tagalog and Pangasinan scripts, where each character represented a consonant-vowel, or CV, sequence. Before the addition of the virama, writers had no way to designate coda consonants, in the Spanish system words of Spanish origin kept their spellings. Native words, on the hand, conformed to the Spanish rules of spelling. Nowadays, only the generation of Ilocanos use the Spanish system. In the system based on that of Tagalog there is more of a phoneme-to-letter correspondence, the letters ng constitute a digraph and counts as a single letter, following n in alphabetization. As a result, numo humility appears before ngalngal to chew in newer dictionaries, Words of foreign origin, most notably those from Spanish, need to be changed in spelling to better reflect Ilocano phonology. Words of English origin may or may not conform to this orthography, a prime example using this system is the weekly magazine Bannawag. The following are two versions of the Lords Prayer, the one on the left is written using the Spanish-based orthography, while the one on the right uses the Tagalog-based system. It is recognized by the Commission on the Filipino Language as one of the languages of the Philippines. Constitutionally, Ilocano is an official language in the regions where it is spoken. In recent years, a movement in both the Lower and the Upper House of the Congress pressed for the usage of the tongue as a medium of instruction until the sixth grade. Ilocano animistic past offers a background in folklore, mythology

26.
Metro Manila
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These 5 provinces, plus Metro Manila and Pampanga, sum to 30.7 million residents as of the newly counted census of 2015. The region is the center of culture, economy, education, NCR is one of the 12 defined metropolitan areas in the Philippines according to the National Economic and Development Authority. Designated as a global city, NCR exerts a significant impact on commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education. It is the home to all the consulates and embassies in the Philippines and its economic power makes the region the countrys premier center for finance and commerce. NCR accounts for 37. 2% of the domestic product of the Philippines. The Province of Manila, the progenitor to the present-day Metro Manila, is one of the eight provinces that revolted against the Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines. The province was honored as one of the sun rays in the Flag of the Philippines, a historical province known as Manila encompasses the former pre-Hispanic kingdoms of Tondo and Maynila. It became the capital of the colonial Philippines, with Manila serving as the center of colonial power, in 1898, it included the City of Manila and 23 other municipalities. Mariquina also served as the capital from 1898-1899, just as when the sovereignty of the Philippines was transferred to the United States, the province was dissolved and most of it was incorporated to the newly created province of Rizal in 1901. Since the Spanish colonial period, Manila was considered as one of the global cities. Pasig serves as its provincial capital, in 1939, President Quezon established Quezon City with a goal to replace Manila as the capital city of the country. A masterplan for Quezon City was completed, the establishment of Quezon City meant demise of the grand Burnham Plan of Manila, with funds being diverted for the establishment of the new capital. World War II further resulted in the loss most of the developments in the Burnham Plan, but more importantly, later on, Quezon City eventually declared as the national capital from 1948-1976. The tile was re-designated back to Manila through Presidential Decree No.940 owing to its significance as the seat of government of the Philippines since the Spanish colonial period. During the war, President Manuel L. Jorge Vargas was appointed as its mayor, Mayors in the cities and municipalities included in the City of Greater Manila served as vice mayors in their town. This was in order to ensure Vargas, who was Quezons principal lieutenant for administrative matters, the City of Greater Manila was abolished by the Japanese with the formation of the Philippine Executive Commission to govern the occupied regions of the country. The City of Greater Manila served as a model for the present-day Metro Manila, on November 7,1975, Metro Manila was formally established through Presidential Decree No.824. The Metropolitan Manila Commission was also created to manage the region, on June 2,1978, through Presidential Decree No

27.
Ferdinand III of Castile
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Ferdinand III, called the Saint, was King of Castile from 1217 and King of León from 1230 as well as King of Galicia from 1231. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile, through his second marriage he was also Count of Aumale. Ferdinand was canonized in 1671 by Pope Clement X and, in Spanish, he is known as Fernando el Santo, the exact date of Ferdinands birth is unclear. It has been proposed to have been as early as 1199 or even 1198, Ferdinand was born at the Monastery of Valparaíso. Ferdinand has other royal ancestors from his paternal grandmother Urraca of Portugal and his maternal grandmother Eleanor of England a daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. From his birth to 1204 Ferdinand was designated heir to his fathers kingdom of Leon with the support of his mother and the kingdom of Castile despite the fact that he was Alfonso IXs second son. Alfonso IX already had a son and two daughters from his first marriage to Teresa of Portugal but at the time he never acknowledge his first son as his heir, however, the Castilians saw the elder Ferdinand as a potential rival and threat to Berengarias son. The marriage of Ferdinands parents was annulled by order of Pope Innocent III in 1204, Berengaria then took their children, including Ferdinand, to the court of her father, King Alfonso VIII of Castile. In 1217, her brother, Henry I, died and she succeeded him on the Castilian throne with Ferdinand as her heir. When Ferdinands father, Alfonso IX of León, died in 1230, his will delivered the kingdom to his older daughters Sancha and Dulce, but Ferdinand contested the will, and claimed the inheritance for himself. Ferdinand thus became the first sovereign of both kingdoms since the death of Alfonso VII in 1157, early in his reign, Ferdinand had to deal with a rebellion of the House of Lara. Since the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 halted the advance of the Almohads in Spain, a series of truces had kept Castile and the Almohad dominions of al-Andalus more-or-less at peace. However, a crisis of succession in the Almohad Caliphate after the death of Yusuf II in 1224 opened to Ferdinand III an opportunity for intervention, al-Adils rebellious cousin, Abdallah al-Bayyasi, appealed to Ferdinand III for military assistance against the usurper. In 1225, a Castilian army accompanied al-Bayyasi in a campaign, ravaging the regions of Jaén, vega de Granada and, in payment, al-Bayyasi gave Ferdinand the strategic frontier strongholds of Baños de la Encina, Salvatierra and Capilla. When al-Bayyasi was rejected and killed by an uprising in Cordoba shortly after. The crisis in the Almohad Caliphate, however, remained unresolved, in 1228, a new Almohad pretender, Abd al-Ala Idris I al-Mamun, decided to abandon Spain, and left with the last remnant of the Almohad forces for Morocco. Al-Andalus was left fragmented in the hands of local strongmen, only led by Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Hud al-Judhami. There were no great battle encounters - Ibn Huds makeshift Andalusian army was destroyed early on, the Christian armies romped through the south virtually unopposed in the field

28.
Cathedral of St. William the Hermit
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The Cathedral of St. William the Hermit, also known as the San Fernando Cathedral, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Fernando de La Union, in the Philippines. The diocese, which comprise the province of La Union, was created on January 19,1970. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan, prior to the creation of the diocese, the church was formerly under the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia. The cathedral is located in Barangay II, La Union and its parish priests include Father Froilan A. Saluta & Fr. Samuel Joseph F. Banayat, Jr. and Parish Vicars, Father Manuel Ragil, liberato A. Apusen and Father Gari Zaldy P. Patiag). The Cathedrals patron saint is William the Hermit, the founder of the Catholic congregation of Williamites, the town feast is celebrated every February 10. With the founding of San Fernando as a town in 1587, in the barrio of San Vicente, Fr. Santiago Olarte initiated the building of a chapel in 1764, the friars moved the visita to Tanque and then to Kabaroan due to Mindanao’s moros and Visayan pintados raids. Juan Sorolla, Fr. Simon Guillermo, and Fr, pedro Fernando relocated the Church to its present site in the City of San Fernando. Later in 1817, Fr. Simon Torrado erected another church, St. William the Hermit Church was originally situated at Pindangan, now known as Barrio San Vicente. In 1759, Augustinian friar Padre Jose Torres convinced the two settlements to fuse into Pindangan and he and the natives built a church under the patronage of Saint William the Hermit. In 1765, under its parish priest, Friar Fernando Rey and it was in May 1786, that the Ministerio de San Fernando was created. But due to the shortage of priests during the period of 1792 to 1831, San Fernando became a “Visita” of Bauang and San Juan, in 1831, Father Juan Sorolla, the parish priest of Bauang in 1829, was assigned in San Fernando. It was only in 1817 when Father Simon Torrado and Father Sorolla, its first parish priest, the church was damaged by earthquakes in 1860 and 1892. Luis Perez destroyed the walls due to the 1860 earthquake. Jose Rodriguez Cabezas renovated the convent and the church after the 1892 earthquake damages, Katipuneros under Col. Blas Villamor and his Katipuneros sequestered the Church in 1898. It was attacked by rebels in 1898 and the Japanese destroyed it on February 25,1945, rebuilt in 1873, it was again reconstructed from 1947 to 1949 under Bishop Santiago C. He was the Bishop of Nueva Segovia, Philippines and was appointed Archbishop of Nueva Segovia on June 29,1951, Bishop Beltran had been serving as Vicar Apostolic of Bontoc-Lagawe

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Philippine Revolution
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The Philippine Revolution, also called the Tagalog War by the Spanish, was a revolution and subsequent conflict fought between the people of the Philippines and the Spanish colonial authorities. The Philippine Revolution began in August 1896, when the Spanish authorities discovered Katipunan, the Katipunan, led by Andrés Bonifacio, was a liberationist movement whose goal was independence from Spain through armed revolt. The organization began to influence much of the Philippines, Bonifacio called for an attack on the capital city of Manila. This attack failed, however, the surrounding provinces began to revolt, in particular, rebels in Cavite led by Mariano Alvarez and Emilio Aguinaldo won early victories. A power struggle among the revolutionaries led to Bonifacios death in 1897, with command shifting to Aguinaldo and that year, the revolutionaries and the Spanish signed the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, which temporarily reduced hostilities. Aguinaldo and other Filipino officers exiled themselves in Hong Kong, however, the hostilities never completely ceased. On April 21,1898, the United States launched a blockade of Cuba. On May 1, the U. S. Navys Asiatic Squadron, under Commodore George Dewey, decisively defeated the Spanish Navy in the Battle of Manila Bay, effectively seizing control of Manila. On May 19, Aguinaldo, unofficially allied with the United States, returned to the Philippines, by June, the rebels had gained control of nearly all of the Philippines, with the exception of Manila. On June 12, Aguinaldo issued the Philippine Declaration of Independence, although this signified the end date of the revolution, neither Spain nor the United States recognized Philippine independence. The Spanish rule of the Philippines officially ended with the Treaty of Paris of 1898, in the treaty, Spain ceded control of the Philippines and other territories to the United States. There was an uneasy peace around Manila, with the American forces controlling the city, in June 1899, the nascent First Philippine Republic formally declared war against the United States. The Philippines would not become an internationally recognized independent state until 1946, the main influx of revolutionary ideas came at the start of the 19th century, when the Philippines was opened for world trade. In 1809, the first English firms were established in Manila, the Philippines had been governed from Mexico since 1565, with colonial administrative costs sustained by subsidies from the galleon trade. Increased competition with foreign traders brought the trade to an end in 1815. After its recognition of Mexican independence in 1821, Spain was forced to govern the Philippines directly from Madrid, at this point, post-French Revolution ideas entered the country through literature, which resulted in the rise of an enlightened principalia class in the society. The 1868 Spanish Revolution brought the rule of Queen Isabella II to an end. The autocratic government was replaced by a government led by General Francisco Serrano

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Manuel Tinio y Bundoc
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Manuel Tinio y Bundoc was the youngest General of the Philippine Revolutionary Army, and was elected Governor of the Province of Nueva Ecija, Republic of the Philippines in 1907. He is one of the three Fathers of the Cry of Nueva Ecija along with Pantaleon Valmonte and Mariano Llanera, on March 29,2015, Licab, Nueva Ecija, dedicated the very first monument of General Manuel Bundoc Tinio during its 120th anniversary as a municipality. The Tinio family, whose most illustrious son is Manuel Tinio, is conceivably the most prominent, too, the family was the largest landowner in Central Luzon, if not the entire Philippines, prior to the declaration of Martial Law. The Tinios, like the Rizals, are of Chinese descent, an archival document from San Fernando, Pampanga dated 1745 describes a certain Domingo Tinio as a Chino Cristiano or baptized Chinese. Juan Tinio, the first ancestor on record had twin sons who were baptized in Gapan in 1750, in the baptismal record he is described as an indio natural, a native Filipino. From this it can be deduced that either his grandfather or an ancestor was a pure-blooded Chinese. Juan Tinios great-grandson, Mariano Tinio Santiago, was the father of Manuel Tinio, Mariano and his siblings, originally named Santiago, changed their family name to Tinio, their mothers family name, in accordance with Gov. -Gen. Narciso Claverias second decree of 1850 requiring all Indios and Chinese mestizos to change their names if these were saints’ names. Although he was a native of San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, Mariano eventually settled in Licab, then a barrio of Aliaga beside Lake Canarem, having served as Cabeza de Barangay of the place, he came to be known as ‘Cabezang Marianong Pulang Buhok’. Although he eventually became a big landowner, he lived very simply on his lands, cabesang Mariano married several times and, in the fashion of the time, engaged in extramarital affairs, siring numerous progeny. His fourth and last wife was Silveria Misadsad Bundoc of Entablado and he died on Oct.11,1889 in Licab. Silveria, a woman of strong character, lived on until the 2 decade of the 20th century. Manuel Tinio was born to Silveria on June 17,1877 in Licab and he was the only son and had two sisters, the eldest, Maximiana, married Valentin de Castro of Licab and Catalina, the youngest, married Clemente Gatchalian Hernandez of Malolos, Bulacan. Manuel was his mothers favorite, his father having died when Manuel was twelve, the young Manuel Tinio learned his caton, the phonetic ABCs, under an unknown tutor in Licab. Later, he went to the capital where he attended a school in Calaba. He continued his studies in Manila in the run by Don V. Crisologo. In 1893 he entered San Juan de Letran, where he pursued his segunda ensenianza or high school studies until 1896, Manuel Tinio was said to have been a mischievous student, but a born leader. As was the custom of the time, the students tended to gravitate into regional groups, naturally, Manuel became the leader of the Novo-Ecijanos

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Second World War
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan

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Philippine Statistics Authority
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The Philippine Statistics Authority was created on September 12,2013 when the Philippine Statistical Act of 2013 was signed by President Benigno S. Aquino III. It collects, compiles, analyzes and publishes information on economic, social, demographic, political affairs. Likewise, it enforces the civil functions in the Philippines. The organization assumed its responsibilities when Commonwealth Act No.591 was approved on August 19,1940 and it was then known as the Bureau of the Census and Statistics. It became the National Census and Statistics Office in 1974 until was renamed to be the National Statistics Office, the emergence of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics was spurred by government efforts to improve the agricultural data base in the country. In the past, the data system suffered from significant gaps, some duplications. The BAS has assumed most of the functions of its predecessor and this law designates BAS as the central information source and server of the National Information Network of the Department of Agriculture. Census in the Philippines Demographics of the Philippines Official website, old URL Philippine Statistics Act of 2013 Implementing rules and regulations of the Philippine Statistics Act of 2013

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Saccharum officinarum
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Saccharum officinarum, sugarcane, is a large, strong-growing species of grass in the genus Saccharum. It originated in southeast Asia and is now cultivated in tropical and subtropical countries worldwide for the production of sugar, S. officinarum, a perennial plant, grows in clumps consisting of a number of strong unbranched stems. A network of rhizomes forms under the soil which sends up secondary shoots near the parent plant, the stems vary in colour, being green, pinkish, or purple and can reach 5 m in height. They are jointed, nodes being present at the bases of the alternate leaves, the internodes contain a fibrous white pith immersed in sugary sap. The elongated, linear, green leaves have thick midribs and saw-toothed edges and grow to a length of about 30 to 60 cm, the terminal inflorescence is a panicle up to 60 cm long, a pinkish plume that is broadest at the base and tapering towards the top. The spikelets are borne on branches and are about 3 mm long and are concealed in tufts of long. The fruits are dry and each one contains a single seed, sugarcane harvest typically occurs before the plants flower, as the flowering process causes a reduction in sugar content. Portions of the stem of this and several species of sugarcane have been used from ancient times for chewing to extract the sweet juice. It was cultivated in New Guinea about 8000 years ago for this purpose, extraction of the juice and boiling to concentrate it was probably first done in India more than 2000 years ago. S. officinarum and its hybrids are grown for the production of sugar, ethanol, the stems and the byproducts of the sugar industry are used for feeding to livestock. Pigs fed on sugarcane juice and a protein supplement produced stronger piglets that grew faster than those on a more conventional diet. As its specific name implies, it is used in traditional medicine both internally and externally

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Thunderbird Resorts (Philippines)
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Thunderbird Resorts or Thunderbirds Resort-Hotel is the only five-star hotel-resort in Northern Luzon, Philippines. It is owned by a property developer, anchored by casino and providing hospitality services in Asia. It has other branches in Costa Rica, India, Nicaragua, the luxurious Resort in the South China Sea is headed by an Independent Board of Directors led by Director, Roberto de Ocampo. The Resort is surrounded by the Thunderbird Residences that were inaugurated in October 2010, a model unit, Athena is one of the 10 beach homes-Villas facing the main lobby of the hotel. Chloe, Selene, Alexa and Aphrodite homes are also in the Resort, the Mediterranean-inspired architecture of the hotel has an active boardwalk inside a seaside landscape, including a golf & beach club. Its Fiesta Casinos features slot machines and table games near the Cabana Bar, the Resort overlooks the edge of a headland into the West Philippine Sea. The luxury suites are nestled upon a 100-ft cliff at the highest point of the Poro peninsula, a P200-million condotel will be erected in the prime property. Economy of the Philippines PPMC - Poro Point Management Corporation, Poro Point Coordinates Thunderbirdresorts Website of the Resort Resort and Hotel San Fernando City Website

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Poro Point
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Poro Point, also known historically as San Fernando Point, is a headland and peninsula located in the city of San Fernando, La Union, on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. It projects northwesterly about 3.2 kilometres into the South China Sea and it was named after its location within barangay Poro and is the site of Poro Point Freeport Zone, a special economic zone established since 1993. Poro Point forms the boundary of San Fernando Bay where the citys downtown core. To the south, it overlooks Lingayen Gulf which spreads all the way into the northern coast of Pangasinan up to Santiago Island in Bolinao, the headland is about 0.8 kilometres wide rising gently to the northwest to an elevation of 84 feet. White cliffs are prominent features along its western coastline, the southern side of the peninsula contains the 65. 5-hectare Greek-inspired Thunderbird Resort with white-sand beaches, a nine-hole golf course and an artificial lake completed in 2008. The entire peninsula covers an area of 1.82 square kilometres composed of coralline limestone possibly dating back to the Pleistocene age and it is a habitat of several migrating bird species such as kingfisher, grey heron, starling and pied triller. The point is located about 2.3 kilometres from the San Fernando Airport and it is part of barangay Poro but administered by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority as a tourism and industrial estate. Poro Point has been the site of a navigational aid since 1885, the first Poro Point Lighthouse built during the Spanish colonial period is a cylindrical steel tower that was prefabricated in France and was completed on 28 November 1885. It measures approximately 6 metres in height and was one of the seventeen luces locales built by the Spanish in the Philippines, by November 1903 through an executive order by U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt, the site became Camp Wallace and eventually, the Wallace Air Station. In 1979, a tower was built to replace the Spanish lighthouse. This structure that now towers over the area is 126 feet tall and it was later renamed to Naval Station Ernesto Ogbinar after the former Navy chief. The former Wallace Air Station has also converted into a freeport

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Wallace Air Station
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Naval Station Ernesto Ogbinar, previously Naval Station Poro Point, is a installation of the Philippine Navy, located at Poro Point, in San Fernando, La Union, Luzon, The Philippines. It was previously a U. S. installation known as Wallace Air Station, the Poro Point installation occupied 101 hectares and was acquired in 1903 for the United States Cavalry. In November 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an order establishing Camp Wallace. Wallace Air Station and the squadron were inactivated in 1991 following the closing or transfer of all United States Department of Defense facilities in the Philippines, Wallace was also home to a Ryan Firebee Drone Launch Facility, run by an Air Force contractor. This facility and 1st Test Squadron COMBAT SAGE program, provided Pacific Air Forces pilots with live-fire training, since the drones were not usually destroyed when they are shot down, there was a need to recover them for reuse. During each launch, numerous boats, were close by. They are worth a few pesos paid by the contractor, uH-1 helicopters from the Philippine Air Force would also show up, but not too often, since there as there was not enough budget for operating them. For larger aircraft such as C-12s or C-130s, the USAF would always use the San Fernando Airport, Wallace was also home to Voice of America broadcast equipment, as well as various Philippine Air Force antennas. The facility was formally turned-over by the United States to the Republic of the Philippines on 16 September 1991 and it became the headquarters of the Naval Forces Northern Luzon of the Philippine Navy called Poro Point Naval Station. It was later renamed to Naval Station Ernesto Ogbinar after the former Navy chief, in November 2014, Commander Severino David on Wednesday took over the Navys Northern Luzon Command based at Poro Point. David replaced Commander Nodolfo Tejada who retired after serving for 37 years, Wallace Air Station Bases Conversion and Development Authority

37.
Hectare
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The hectare is an SI accepted metric system unit of area equal to 100 ares and primarily used in the measurement of land as a metric replacement for the imperial acre. An acre is about 0.405 hectare and one hectare contains about 2.47 acres, in 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1⁄100 km2. When the metric system was further rationalised in 1960, resulting in the International System of Units, the are was not included as a recognised unit. The hectare, however, remains as a non-SI unit accepted for use with the SI units, the metric system of measurement was first given a legal basis in 1795 by the French Revolutionary government. At the first meeting of the CGPM in 1889 when a new standard metre, manufactured by Johnson Matthey & Co of London was adopted, in 1960, when the metric system was updated as the International System of Units, the are did not receive international recognition. The units that were catalogued replicated the recommendations of the CGPM, many farmers, especially older ones, still use the acre for everyday calculations, and convert to hectares only for official paperwork. Farm fields can have long histories which are resistant to change, with names such as the six acre field stretching back hundreds of years. The names centiare, deciare, decare and hectare are derived by adding the standard metric prefixes to the base unit of area. The centiare is a synonym for one square metre, the deciare is ten square metres. The are is a unit of area, equal to 100 square metres and it was defined by older forms of the metric system, but is now outside of the modern International System of Units. It is commonly used to measure real estate, in particular in Indonesia, India, and in French-, Portuguese-, Slovakian-, Serbian-, Czech-, Polish-, Dutch-, in Russia and other former Soviet Union states, the are is called sotka. It is used to describe the size of suburban dacha or allotment garden plots or small city parks where the hectare would be too large, the decare is derived from deka, the prefix for 10 and are, and is equal to 10 ares or 1000 square metres. It is used in Norway and in the former Ottoman areas of the Middle East, the hectare, although not strictly a unit of SI, is the only named unit of area that is accepted for use within the SI. The United Kingdom, United States, Burma, and to some extent Canada instead use the acre, others, such as South Africa, published conversion factors which were to be used particularly when preparing consolidation diagrams by compilation. In many countries, metrication redefined or clarified existing measures in terms of metric units, non-SI units accepted for use with the International System of Units

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Ma-Cho Temple
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The Ma-Cho or Ma Cho Temple is a temple to the Chinese sea-goddess Mazu located on Quezon Avenue in Barangay II, San Fernando, La Union in the Philippines. It was built in 1975 by San Fernandos substantial Chinese community under the leadership of Jose D. Aspiras, Mazu is the deified form of the medieval Fujianese teenager Lin Moniang. Mazuism is not formally recognized as a religion by either Mainland China or Taiwan, the temple in San Fernando was erected in 1975. With an elevation of 70 above sea level, the 7-story temple is a towering 11-tiered, multi-hued attraction on a more than a hectare of lot and accessible by separate routes. The temples attractions include the Majestic Five Door Gate, Bamboo Garden, the Liang Thing Pagoda,2 circular pools or ponds and the emblem of a dragon, the Bell Tower. The interiors of Ma-Cho Temple is filled with Chinese ancient decorations or art, Taiwan laborers helped build the building under famous Architect Thomas Diokno. The temple is adorned by Chinese motif of Taipei lions and dragons and its original spider type dome awes the beholder with the interlinking wood carvings of saints. Statues of animals, the famous towering arch, and the room all focus on Mazus eyes. Unlike Cebus Phu Sian Temple, Ma-Cho Temple is open to the worshipers and non-worshipers alike, Mazus 8-inch icon is at the center of the Temples main altar. The icon has a Catholic counterpart, Our Lady of Caysasay, in St Martins Basilica in Taal, a ritual among devotees is where one prays to the gods to grant ones wish. Weekly, a session is held as temple priests read Mazus message to the devotees. The temple is not exclusively Mazuist, Tu Di Gong or Tho Ti Kong, an idol to Kuan Yi Ma or Mother Guanyin, a Buddhist goddess of mercy, stands in the garden. In the exterior of the temple, the “Chinese 18 Saints are worshipped at the entrance wall, the courtyard has a pond of water lilies and gold fish

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Giant clam
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The giant clam, known as pā’ua in Cook Islands Māori, is a clam that is the largest living bivalve mollusk. Tridacna gigas is one of the most endangered clam species, antonio Pigafetta documented these in his journal as early as 1521. They are also found off the shores of the Philippines, where they are called taklobo, Tridacna gigas lives in flat coral sand or broken coral and can be found at depths of as much as 20 m. Its range covers the Indo-Pacific, but populations are diminishing quickly, Tridacna maxima has the largest geographical distribution among giant clam species, it can be found off high- or low-elevation islands, in lagoons or fringing reefs. Its rapid growth rate is due to its ability to cultivate algae in its body tissue. Although larval clams are planktonic, they become sessile in adulthood, the creatures mantle tissues act as a habitat for the symbiotic single-celled dinoflagellate algae from which the adult clams get most of their nutrition. By day, the clam opens its shell and extends its mantle tissue so that the algae receive the sunlight they need to photosynthesize, young T. gigas are difficult to distinguish from other species of Tridacnidae. Adult T. gigas are the giant clams unable to close their shells completely. Even when closed, part of the mantle is visible, unlike the very similar T. derasa, however, this can only be recognized with increasing age and growth. Small gaps always remain between shells through which retracted brownish-yellow mantle can be seen. Tridacna gigas has four or five vertical folds in its shell, this is the characteristic that separates it from the very similar shell of T. derasa. As with massive deposition of coral matrices composed of calcium carbonate, the mantles edges are packed with symbiotic zooxanthellae that presumably utilize carbon dioxide, phosphates, and nitrates supplied by the clam. The largest known T. gigas specimen measured 137 centimetres and it was discovered around 1817 on the north western coast of Sumatra. The weight of the two shells was 230 kilograms and this suggests that the live weight of the animal would have been roughly 250 kilograms. Today these shells are on display in a museum in Northern Ireland, another unusually large giant clam was found in 1956 off the Japanese island of Ishigaki. However, it was not examined scientifically before 1984, the shells length was 115 centimetres and the weight of the shells and soft parts was 333 kilograms. Scientists estimated the weight to be around 340 kilograms. Algae provide giant clams with a source of nutrition

40.
Coatzacoalcos
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Coatzacoalcos is a major port city in the southern part of the Mexican state of Veracruz, on the Coatzacoalcos River. Coatzacoalcos comes from a word meaning Site of the Snake or Where the snake hides. The city serves as the seat of the municipality of the same name. Coatzacoalcos, in Nahuatl, means The place where the snake hides, according to the legend, this is the place where the god Quetzalcoatl made his final journey to the sea around the year 999 and where he made his promise to return. Coatzacoalcos lives within the Olmec heartland, excavations in 2008 for a tunnel underneath the Coatzacoalcos River indicate a substantial pre-Hispanic population. By the time of the Spanish arrival the area was under Mayan influence, in 1522, Hernán Cortés ordered Gonzalo de Sandoval to fund a settlement near Guazacualco. Sandoval named it Villa del Espíritu Santo, the San Martín Tuxlta is an active volcano lying northwest of Coatzcoalcos in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas. It erupted in 1664, in May 1793 with large ash falls and lava flows, the town was elevated to the category of port in 1825 and the name was changed to Coatzacoalcos. The municipality of Coatzacoalcos was established 22 December 1881, with the town as its seat, in 1900 the town name was changed to Puerto México. In 1911 it was elevated to city, and in 1936 the name was changed to the current Coatzacoalcos, on 23 July 1940, Coatzacoalcos welcomed refugees from the Spanish Civil War who sought asylum in Mexico after travelling across the Atlantic aboard the SS Santo Domingo. The city is located at 18°9′N 94°26′W where the Coatzacoalcos Quaschnick River debouches into the Bay of Campeche, overland it is connected by road and rail to the Pacific Ocean about 160 kilometres away. This location has prompted plans for a waterway across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, or for a much expanded railroad system. The city had a 2005 census population of 234,174, making it the third-largest city in the state after Veracruz and Xalapa, the municipality covers a surface area of 471.16 km2 and reported a population of 280,263 persons. The municipality population in 2010 was 305,260 an increase of 9% over 2005, the largest community in the municipality, aside from the city of Coatzacoalcos, is the town of Allende, with a population of 20,501 in 2005. In the Köppen climate classification the climate is classified as Am for a monsoon climate. A typical year more than 290 centimetres of rainfall. The winter months are cooler and drier than the summer months, the citys industry is dominated by the petrochemical sector. Four big industrial petrochemical complexes are located near the city making it one of the most important concentrations of its kind in the world, the state-owned Pemex Petroquímica subsidiary is headquartered in Coatzacoalcos and 85% of its production is concentrated there

Cities of the Philippines
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A city is one of the units of local government in the Philippines. As of December 12,2015, there are 145 cities, Cities are entitled to at least one representative in the Philippine House of Representatives if its population reaches 250,000. They are allowed to use a common seal, only an Act of Congress can create or amend a city charter, and with

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Philippines

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Philippines
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The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila a

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King Philip II of Spain.

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Tabon Cave and its carvings.

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The Banaue Rice Terraces where Ifugao/Igorot utilized terrace farming in the steep mountainous regions of northern Philippines over 2000 years ago.

Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a

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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.

Regions of the Philippines
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In the Philippines, regions, ISO 3166-2, PH) are administrative divisions that serve primarily to organize the provinces of the country for administrative convenience. Currently, the republic of the Philippines is divided into 18 regions. Most government offices are established by region instead of individual provincial offices, the regions themsel

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Philippines

Ilocos Region
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The Ilocos Region is an administrative region of the Philippines, designated as Region I, occupying the northwestern section of Luzon. It is bordered by the Cordillera Administrative Region to the east, the Cagayan Valley to the northeast and southeast, to the west lies the South China Sea. The region comprises four provinces, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos

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Paoay Church, Ilocos Norte, Philippines

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Location in the Philippines

Provinces of the Philippines
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The provinces of the Philippines are the primary political and administrative divisions of the Philippines. There are 81 provinces at present, further subdivided into component cities and municipalities, the National Capital Region, as well as independent cities, are independent of any provincial government. Each province is governed by a legislatu

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Philippines

La Union
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La Union, is a province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in the island of Luzon. Its capital is the city of San Fernando, which serves as the regional center of the whole Ilocos Region. The province is bordered by Ilocos Sur to the north, Benguet to the east, Pangasinan to the south, pangasinenses were the majority in the new provinc

House of Representatives of the Philippines
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The House of Representatives of the Philippines, is the lower house of the Congress of the Philippines. It is often informally called Congress, Members of the House are officially styled as Representative and sometimes informally called Congressmen/Congresswomen and are elected to a three-year term. They can be re-elected, but cannot serve more tha

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House of Representatives of the Philippines Kapulungan ng mga Kinatawan ng Pilipinas

Barangay
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A barangay, formerly referred to as barrio, is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district or ward. In colloquial usage, the term refers to an inner city neighbourhood. The word barangay originated from balangay, a kind of boat used by a group of Austronesian peoples when they migr

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Maybo Barangay Hall in Boac, Marinduque

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Philippines

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Sulop Barangay Hall

Sangguniang Panlungsod
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The Sangguniang Panlungsod are the legislatures of city governments in the Philippines. As defined by the Local Government Code of 1991, the legislatures have legislative and quasi-judicial powers, the members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, often referred to as councilors are either elected or ex-officio and includes a citys vice mayor who serves a

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Philippines

Philippine general election, 2016
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At the top of the ballot is the election for successors to Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and Vice President Jejomar Binay. The ARMM elections pushed through, as scheduled, barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections were scheduled for October 2016, but were postponed to 2017. Bautista replaced Sixto Brillantes, while Guanzon and Abbas rep

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Philippines

Philippine Standard Time
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Philippine Standard Time, also known as Philippine Time and informally Juan Time, is the official name for the time in the Philippines. The country only uses one time zone, and for a short period, geographically, the Philippines lies within 116°40′ and 126°34′ east of the Prime Meridian, and is physically located within the UTC+08,00 time zone. Phi

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World time conversion based on Philippine Standard Time (click to enlarge).

List of ZIP codes in the Philippines
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In the Philippines, the Philippine ZIP code is used by the Philippine Postal Corporation to simplify the distribution of mail. While in function it is similar to the ZIP code used in the United States, its form, the use of ZIP codes in the Philippines is not mandatory, however it is highly recommended by Philpost that they be used. This article pro

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ZIP codes per provinces according to the first two numbers.

Telephone numbers in the Philippines
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Telephone numbers in the Philippines follow an open telephone numbering plan and an open dial plan. Both plans are regulated by the National Telecommunications Commission, an agency under the Department of Information. The Philippines is assigned an international dialling code of 63 by ITU-T, telephone numbers are fixed at seven digits, with area c

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Fixed line area codes

Tropical monsoon climate
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Tropical monsoon climates have monthly mean temperatures above 18 °C in every month of the year and feature wet and dry seasons, as Tropical savanna climates do. Tropical monsoon climates however features its driest month seeing on average less than 60 mm and this latter fact is in direct contrast to a tropical savanna climate, whose driest month s

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Worldwide zones of tropical monsoon climate (Am).

Municipalities of the Philippines
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A municipality is a local government unit in the Philippines. Municipalities are also usually called towns and they are distinct from cities, which are a different category of local government unit. Provinces of the Philippines are divided into cities and municipalities, which in turn, are divided into barangays, as of June 2015, there are 1,490 mu

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Philippines

Ilokano language
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Ilocano is the third most-spoken native language of the Philippines. An Austronesian language, it is related to languages as Malay, Tetum, Chamorro, Fijian, Maori, Hawaiian, Samoan, Tahitian, Paiwan. It is closely related to some of the other Austronesian languages of Northern Luzon, and has slight mutual intelligibility with the Balangao language,

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Area where Ilokano is spoken according to Ethnologue Striped areas are Itneg -Ilokano bilingual communities in Abra province

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Our Father prayer from Doctrina Cristiana, 1621.

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An Ilocano Dictionary by Morice Vanoverbergh, CICM, published in 1955 by the CICM Fathers in Baguio City to help them in evangelizing in Ilocandia.

City of the Philippines
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A city is one of the units of local government in the Philippines. As of December 12,2015, there are 145 cities, Cities are entitled to at least one representative in the Philippine House of Representatives if its population reaches 250,000. They are allowed to use a common seal, only an Act of Congress can create or amend a city charter, and with

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Philippines

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Philippine Province
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The provinces of the Philippines are the primary political and administrative divisions of the Philippines. There are 81 provinces at present, further subdivided into component cities and municipalities, the National Capital Region, as well as independent cities, are independent of any provincial government. Each province is governed by a legislatu

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Philippines

San Juan, La Union
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San Juan is a second class municipality in the province of La Union, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 35,098 people, San Juan is located in the west of the province of La Union, along the Manila North Road, between latitudes 16°39N and 16°43N and longitudes 120°9E and 120°15E. San Juan is bounded on the north by the

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Presidencia of San Juan

Bauang, La Union
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Bauang is a first class urbanized municipality in the province of La Union, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 70,735 people and it is bordered by San Fernando City to the north, Caba to the south, Naguilian to the east, and the West Philippine Sea to the west. The MacArthur Highway runs through the town, which juncti

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Bauang

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Seal

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Eulogio Clarence Martin P. de Guzman III and Elected Officials

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Bauang sunset

Bagulin, La Union
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Bagulin is a fifth class municipality in the province of La Union, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 12,590 people, tradition reveals that Bagulin derived its name from a Kankanaey tribal leader. Sometime in the middle of the 18th century, the municipality is part of the township of Allabok which covers the slopes of

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Bagulin Municipal Hall

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Seal

Naguilian, La Union
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Naguilian is a municipality in the province of La Union, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 49,311 people, Naguilian is 40 kilometres from Baguio City via the Naguilian Road and 17 kilometres from the provincial capital, San Fernando. Naguilian is characterized by hills and mountains that are gently rolling, the alien

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Naguilian Municipal Hall

South China Sea
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The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Karimata and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around 3,500,000 square kilometres. The areas importance largely results from one-third of the worlds shipping sailing through its waters, the sea and its mostly uninhabited islands are subje

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The northeastern portion of the South China Sea

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Sunset on the South China Sea off Mũi Né village on the south-east coast of Vietnam

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Map of various countries occupying the Spratly Islands

Ilocano language
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Ilocano is the third most-spoken native language of the Philippines. An Austronesian language, it is related to languages as Malay, Tetum, Chamorro, Fijian, Maori, Hawaiian, Samoan, Tahitian, Paiwan. It is closely related to some of the other Austronesian languages of Northern Luzon, and has slight mutual intelligibility with the Balangao language,

Metro Manila
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These 5 provinces, plus Metro Manila and Pampanga, sum to 30.7 million residents as of the newly counted census of 2015. The region is the center of culture, economy, education, NCR is one of the 12 defined metropolitan areas in the Philippines according to the National Economic and Development Authority. Designated as a global city, NCR exerts a s

Ferdinand III of Castile
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Ferdinand III, called the Saint, was King of Castile from 1217 and King of León from 1230 as well as King of Galicia from 1231. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile, through his second marriage he was also Count of Aumale. Ferdinand was canonized in 1671 by Pope Clement X and, in Spanish, he is known as Fernando el Santo,

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Ferdinand III in a 13th-century miniature

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Saint Ferdinand, T.O.S.F.

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Statue of Ferdinand III (Patio of Metropolitan Cathedral of San Fernando)

Cathedral of St. William the Hermit
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The Cathedral of St. William the Hermit, also known as the San Fernando Cathedral, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Fernando de La Union, in the Philippines. The diocese, which comprise the province of La Union, was created on January 19,1970. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan, prior to the creation of the dio

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Façade of San Fernando Cathedral

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Facade of the Cathedral of St. William the Hermit

Philippine Revolution
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The Philippine Revolution, also called the Tagalog War by the Spanish, was a revolution and subsequent conflict fought between the people of the Philippines and the Spanish colonial authorities. The Philippine Revolution began in August 1896, when the Spanish authorities discovered Katipunan, the Katipunan, led by Andrés Bonifacio, was a liberation

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Clockwise from top left: Surviving Spanish troops on Barcelona after the Siege of Baler, Captured of a Filipino Revolutionary Leader by Spanish Troops, Filipino Soliers at the Siege of Baler, Monument recapturing the Battle of Imus, Filipino negotiators for the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, Filipino soldier during the near end of the Revolution.

Manuel Tinio y Bundoc
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Manuel Tinio y Bundoc was the youngest General of the Philippine Revolutionary Army, and was elected Governor of the Province of Nueva Ecija, Republic of the Philippines in 1907. He is one of the three Fathers of the Cry of Nueva Ecija along with Pantaleon Valmonte and Mariano Llanera, on March 29,2015, Licab, Nueva Ecija, dedicated the very first

Second World War
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directl

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Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the Battle of Wanjialing, Australian 25-pounder guns during the First Battle of El Alamein, German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the Lingayen Gulf, Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad

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The League of Nations assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, 1930

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Adolf Hitler at a German National Socialist political rally in Weimar, October 1930

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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the Second Italo-Abyssinian War

Philippine Statistics Authority
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The Philippine Statistics Authority was created on September 12,2013 when the Philippine Statistical Act of 2013 was signed by President Benigno S. Aquino III. It collects, compiles, analyzes and publishes information on economic, social, demographic, political affairs. Likewise, it enforces the civil functions in the Philippines. The organization

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A 2007 Census notice posted on the gate of a residence.

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The NSO logo

Saccharum officinarum
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Saccharum officinarum, sugarcane, is a large, strong-growing species of grass in the genus Saccharum. It originated in southeast Asia and is now cultivated in tropical and subtropical countries worldwide for the production of sugar, S. officinarum, a perennial plant, grows in clumps consisting of a number of strong unbranched stems. A network of rh

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Saccharum officinarum

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Harvesting sugarcane by hand

Thunderbird Resorts (Philippines)
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Thunderbird Resorts or Thunderbirds Resort-Hotel is the only five-star hotel-resort in Northern Luzon, Philippines. It is owned by a property developer, anchored by casino and providing hospitality services in Asia. It has other branches in Costa Rica, India, Nicaragua, the luxurious Resort in the South China Sea is headed by an Independent Board o

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Thunderbirds Resort-Hotel, Poro Point, San Fernando, La Union.

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Panorama of the Prime property in sunset-sea

Poro Point
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Poro Point, also known historically as San Fernando Point, is a headland and peninsula located in the city of San Fernando, La Union, on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. It projects northwesterly about 3.2 kilometres into the South China Sea and it was named after its location within barangay Poro and is the site of Poro Point Freeport Zone,

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The lighthouse at Poro Point

Wallace Air Station
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Naval Station Ernesto Ogbinar, previously Naval Station Poro Point, is a installation of the Philippine Navy, located at Poro Point, in San Fernando, La Union, Luzon, The Philippines. It was previously a U. S. installation known as Wallace Air Station, the Poro Point installation occupied 101 hectares and was acquired in 1903 for the United States

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Wallace Air Station

Hectare
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The hectare is an SI accepted metric system unit of area equal to 100 ares and primarily used in the measurement of land as a metric replacement for the imperial acre. An acre is about 0.405 hectare and one hectare contains about 2.47 acres, in 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as 100 square metres and the hectare was

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Trafalgar Square has an area of about one hectare.

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Definition of a hectare and of an are.

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Waikato Stadium – Hamilton, New Zealand

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The Statue of Liberty – New York Harbor

Ma-Cho Temple
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The Ma-Cho or Ma Cho Temple is a temple to the Chinese sea-goddess Mazu located on Quezon Avenue in Barangay II, San Fernando, La Union in the Philippines. It was built in 1975 by San Fernandos substantial Chinese community under the leadership of Jose D. Aspiras, Mazu is the deified form of the medieval Fujianese teenager Lin Moniang. Mazuism is n

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Facade of the Ma-Cho Temple

Giant clam
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The giant clam, known as pā’ua in Cook Islands Māori, is a clam that is the largest living bivalve mollusk. Tridacna gigas is one of the most endangered clam species, antonio Pigafetta documented these in his journal as early as 1521. They are also found off the shores of the Philippines, where they are called taklobo, Tridacna gigas lives in flat

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Giant clam

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Empty shell from the Aquarium Finisterrae in Spain

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Green and blue giant clam from East Timor

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Camouflaged giant clam

Coatzacoalcos
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Coatzacoalcos is a major port city in the southern part of the Mexican state of Veracruz, on the Coatzacoalcos River. Coatzacoalcos comes from a word meaning Site of the Snake or Where the snake hides. The city serves as the seat of the municipality of the same name. Coatzacoalcos, in Nahuatl, means The place where the snake hides, according to the

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Coatzacoalcos City,2013

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Coatzacoalcos stands on the Gulf coast of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec